Is Programing Art or Science?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Xah,

In comp.emacs Xah Lee <xahlee at gmail.com> wrote:

> For these computing jockeys, there remains the question of why Knuth
> named his books the ?Art? of Computer Programing, or why some
> computing luminaries litter the caution that programing is as much a
> art as science. What elite dimwits need to realize is that these
> authors are not defining or correcting, but breaking precepts among
> the automatons in programing industry.

He was using art in the sense of "the exercise of human skill (as
distinguished from nature)".  That's the second definition in my
dictionary.  When people talk about, for example, the art of painting
water colours, they mean the techniques of mixing paints, depicting
objects on paper, etc.  They are not referring to the artistic value of
the painting painted.

> yours humbly,
> 
> Xah

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).